carbon pricing
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Lindsey Graham’s dilemma, part two: Trying to deal a winning hand without ACES
As we saw yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham is in a pickle. He wants a climate bill. He wants to put a price on carbon. He wants to bring diverse constituencies to the table. He wants to craft something the public can support. But he can’t use the bill that already did all that stuff! The […]
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Lindsey Graham’s dilemma, part one: How ACES got dealt a poor hand
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) appear set to introduce a draft of their new climate/energy legislation this week. Graham says they are trying to hash out a moderate bill that can draw broad public support and pick up a few Republican votes. Now, as it happens, what Graham is […]
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Sen. Mark Udall: “I think it’s crucial to price carbon”
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)Mark Udall — son of legendary enviro-friendly Arizona Rep. Morris “Mo” Udall — had been a member of Colorado’s House delegation for 10 years when he won the race to replace retiring senator Wayne Allard. Just 17 days into his first term, Colorado’s other senator, Ken Salazar, left to head up Obama’s […]
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Economics cage match: Stavins’ minimalism vs. Houser’s full-court press
Whenever I criticize economists I get yelled at by economists because I’m no economist and what do I know. So I’m trying a different approach: I’m going to compare and contrast two economic perspectives on climate/energy policy. See if you can guess which one I prefer! Textbook economics Representing what he calls the “textbook economics […]
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Waxman-Markey bill would do more for climate without cap-and-trade provision
Waxman-Markey is a big split personality of a bill. Its efficiency and renewable requirements would make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions, even if not a very big one. But the cap-and-trade at the heart of the legislation is another story. Why do we need cap-and-trade or a carbon tax or something similar? If we […]
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Cap-and-trade permit giveaway hurt Waxman-Markey effectiveness
The new Waxman-Markey bill gives away 80% of permits for the first five years. Because I’m confident others will write about climate justice issues in this bill, I thought I’d discuss how giving away large numbers of permits weakens cap-and-trade effectiveness. Cap-and-trade, to the extent that it works, drives behavior through price. Polluters decide on […]
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Should the Republican carbon tax bill be taken seriously?
Well look at this! Just as a compromise was announced on the Waxman-Markey bill and it looks set to move out of committee, along come a couple of Republicans with a carbon tax bill (Bob Inglis [SC] and Jeff Flake [Ariz], co-sponsored by Dem Dan Lipinski of Illinois — none of whom are on the […]
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Why two climate bills are better than one
As this is written, two House Committees — Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means — are considering climate legislation. Both are following similar timetables, and hope to report bills by June. In the case of Energy and Commerce, chairman Henry Waxman has released a 648-page discussion draft. The draft creates a large and […]
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McDermott’s cap and trade alternative may have unintended consequences
Washington’s Congressman Jim McDermott just released a new climate plan, but I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It gets some things right, but it may cause some relatively serious problems too. Here’s how he described it in a recent blog post: In brief, here’s how it would work: Producers of products and resources […]